A pain-relieving alternative for your patients
By Michael Blate

Acupuncture works. But many people who would otherwise try acupuncture as a pain-relieving treatment are put off by the idea of being stuck by tiny pins.

An alternative? Acupressure — an ancient Asian healing art that uses the fingers to press points on the surface of the skin for pain relief.

Acupuncture and acupressure are similar. Both are forms of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and use the same points and meridians, but acupuncture uses needles, while acupressure uses firm pressure — which relieves muscular tension and encourages the circulation of blood and energy to speed healing.

Even if you never incorporate acupressure as a major part of your practice, simply offering this additional healing modality to your patients makes an important statement about you and your approach to healing. It says you are a modern doctor open to other alternative modalities that may benefit your patients.

Increasingly, chiropractic practices are moving toward a more holistic approach to healing, and especially to health maintenance and wellness. They offer nutritional counseling, massage therapy, and other formerly stand-alone modalities. So why not acupressure, for example, in your office or clinic as a value-added service?

This process of adding value is something most business people try to do as a matter of course. Adding value to your services, once a patient is in your office, is a proven means of building a successful healing practice.

Although at one time you had to “sell” such modalities as acupressure to patients, this is no longer the case. Today, numerous studies of these ancient Eastern practices have confirmed their effectiveness.

Your patients and their families hear more about these studies each year as mainstream media now carries such stories regularly. So even if your patients don’t ask you, they are ready and happy to try them — which means little or no selling on your part.

This works similarly for upper- and lower-back pain, distress in the neck and shoulders, and most other common symptom syndromes for which chiropractic treatment is regularly sought. Though the acupoints are generally different, the result is often the same.

Like chiropractic itself, acupressure is nonintrusive and (as with other forms of “energy medicine”) relieves, even heals, by restoring energy balance, not by masking symptoms.

It is your choice whether to explain these details or not to your patient. It could simply remain as one of your “normal” chiropractic methods about which the sufferer needs to know nothing.

And like chiropractic, so-called “energy medicine” modalities are safe and, at least with acupressure, nonintrusive. This makes acupressure a natural supportive modality in any chiropractic office.

Adding acupressure to your practice requires only a small investment of time and money. Some advanced techniques and specialties require considerable training; acupressure generally does not. Regardless of the type of training you receive, all forms of acupressure can bring fast, effective relief from a wide variety of common ailments.

A SEAMLESS ADDITION

Acupressure can be seamlessly added to your personal, hands-on contact with patients, almost without them knowing it. This is helpful if you simply wish to be a better healer without any explanation of a “new method” you are using. Acupressure will not “reverse” or “neutralize” conventional chiropractic methods; rather, it often enhances their effectiveness.

Today’s chiropractor must be a savvy marketer, too, and acupressure can distinguish you from your peers.

Adding value by expanding your practice through incorporating such methods as acupressure is one of the best means of increasing your patient base, via one of the least expensive ways of advertising — word-of-mouth. Happy patients eagerly share your name with family and friends.

Adding acupressure to your practice is an excellent “talking point” in a postcard announcement to your patient mailing list (or similar marketing program). It can also open the door for office lectures, classes, or workshops you can present to your patients. Teaching a few simple acupressure techniques is an ideal way to involve patients in their own healthcare.

Such sharing sessions are becoming popular. Giving away your secrets may at first seem counterintuitive, but furnishing your patients with simple help to take home proves you are a caring partner in their healing efforts, not just the doctor.

People who seek your help often already know there are things they can, and should, do to help themselves heal. Your acknow-ledging that with a caring gift of knowledge only increases your value to them. It makes you special.

The bottom line: Whether you wish to add to your own knowledge of healing modalities or gain a leg up on your competition (or perhaps both), bringing acupressure into your practice is a wise move. There is very little downside and almost all upside — as many chiropractors have already discovered.

Michael Blate, author, lecturer, and natural-health educator, is executive director of The G-Jo Institute, which teaches self-health acupressure. He can be contacted by phone at 828-863-4660, by e-mail at officesupport@g-jo.com, or through the Web site, www.g-jo.com.